"I heard a new dungeon had successfully survived, so I came thinking 'What welcome news after so long'… My, my. The lord… no, the lady of the new dungeon is such a cute little miss."
In MilDun 1, there was always a visitor who came after each wave ended.
It was the being called the dungeon merchant, through whom it was common to sell the equipment of adventurers who visited the dungeon, corpses of capable individuals, souls, etc., to exchange for currency and purchase other necessary items for the dungeon or magic materials to upgrade the dungeon.
However, the dungeon merchant of this world had some differences from my memory.
"A succubus?"
"Yes, a succubus indeed!"
The dungeon merchant, who was always a goblin in MilDun 1, had transformed and appeared as some female demon.
Not all demons in the form of human women are necessarily succubi, but I could immediately tell that she was a succubus. After all, the proportion of clothing on her body was quite low, and she even had a tattoo on her stomach.
A tattoo I've seen somewhere many times before.
I felt truly fortunate that I didn't choose the path of succubus, that is, Undead – Ghost.
'It was always a goblin in the game.'
The goblin dungeon merchant in MilDun 1 was quite infamous.
Perhaps because the production company had quite a knack for creating illustrations, the skill they used to create pretty hero summons was also used to make high-definition faces for the dungeon merchant.
Not only was their personality bad, often backstabbing, but there were also many of them, so the goblin's face was subtly different each time the dungeon merchant visited.
Maybe that's why a tiny minority of passionate users caused a fuss, asking why they didn't change the merchant NPC to a female character with that good skill.
If you asked my opinion, I would have said what's the difference between a goblin and a succubus when you mostly see pixel SD illustrations anyway.
But seeing it directly like this, it does seem to be a feast for the eyes. Even if I don't have any body parts to react with.
…By the way, this one is rude.
"Stop the charm. What are you doing without even introducing yourself?"
Even though she's much stronger than I am now, to openly spread charm magic from the first meeting.
I can roughly guess why it doesn't work on me, but if I had fallen for it, I would have ended up looking quite unsightly. Naturally, our relationship would have soured.
There's a limit to how much you can underestimate people.
-Creak.
A feeling of displeasure also welled up from Eve, the skeleton standing beside me as if on guard.
It seemed she was quite displeased that the succubus had committed the rudeness of spreading charm towards me, the Dungeon Lord.
However, the succubus, although extraordinary, was paying no attention at all to Eve, who was a skeleton.
"Oh my, I've been found out. And it didn't work either. As expected of a lady."
"Are you a lesbian?"
"Of course not. For a succubus, the target to extract affection from isn't necessarily limited to the opposite sex. Of course, personal preferences are a separate matter."
"…I see. So that's how it is."
The succubus shamelessly brushed off her rudeness and smiled with her seductive eyes narrowed.
I felt like she was telling a small lie, but I decided to push it to the side for now. In the current situation, if I were to fall out with the dungeon guild, I would be the one at a great disadvantage.
There will probably be a proper opportunity to deal with her later.
"Well then, introduce yourself first."
"Oh, excuse me! I am Scarlet Spira Spina, manager of the Mammon Guild!"
"I am Libertas. Dungeon Lord Libertas."
"It's an honor to meet you, Milady Libertas."
'Milady' is a contraction of 'My Lady'.
In other words, she just addressed me using the equivalent of 'Madam' used when addressing a female head of the same household.
"Just Lady will suffice."
"Oops… Excuse me."
When I pointed this out, Scarlet raised one hand exaggeratedly as if saluting and then lowered it with a flinch.
She was a succubus with attractive red eyes, just like her name. A crimson color far redder than any possibility a human could produce, as if a fire was burning.
Moreover, her hair color was truly a vivid pink, so I thought she would stand out wherever she went.
Below that, she wore clothes with quite a small cloth area, but it wasn't that leather style that immediately comes to mind when you think of succubi.
Should I say it's close to a suit, even though it exposes her midriff? It was the kind of suit you might wear for bedroom play, though.
However, there was one point of question.
"By the way, manager?"
"Yes, manager!"
"Is it common for a manager to come out for sales to such a small dungeon?"
"Of course not!"
Ah, is that so.
Then why on earth are you here?
"As I mentioned earlier, it's because a young dungeon that successfully survived appeared after a long time! These days, it's rare for new customers to appear!"
"I see. That's right."
Indeed. It was what she said at the beginning too.
This world is 200 years after dungeons started appearing on the continent.
The frequency of dungeons appearing on the continent has increased tremendously. Still, as a counterbalance, humanity has also started adapting to dungeons, making it very smooth to detect newly born dungeons.
It seems they don't know the exact location or strength for certain, and they need to send scouts like those novice adventurers last time to know its true nature, but.
At least, there's no doubt that dungeons appear so frequently that it has become an everyday occurrence.
To the extent that even if a few novice adventurers who went to find a dungeon disappear, they can just bury it.
"So, like this!"
Whoosh!
"I've come to introduce good items for the dungeon."
"Advertisement, huh."
"It's an advertisement!"
When the succubus threw a scroll, it grew endlessly like a magic carpet, and various items appeared on top of it.
However, these items were not the real things.
For now, they were just illusions. I could intuitively understand that the structure was such that they would properly appear on this only after purchasing the item.
"You probably don't have the means to purchase yet."
"You didn't need to say that last part."
"Excuse me. It's our policy."
Showing these despite having no intention to sell anything is probably a 'showcase.'
『Magic Sword Stormbringer – A magic sword that calls upon the power of lightning and storms. (Information sealed)』
『Contract: Death Knight – A scroll that allows you to contract with Death Knight (Information sealed) and handle it without burdening the core.』
『Forced Corruption Contract – A contract that can force a contract on one hero. Friendliness cannot be guaranteed.』
『Free Demon Mercenary Corps Contract Guarantee – Contract with a mercenary corps guaranteed by the Mammon Guild for a fixed term! They won't stab you in the back. Neither figuratively nor sexually!』
Sure enough.
The items appearing on the scroll carpet and simultaneously visible on my status window were all powerful and excellent items.
This is a shop page where all the letters are in orange 'Legendary' or red 'Mythical,' with only occasional purple 'Heroic' cases like that contract guarantee.
As mentioned, there was virtually nothing I could buy from here.
"So?"
"Pardon?"
"You didn't come here to mock me, did you?"
"Ah. But since you probably can't sell anything either…"
The succubus spoke like that without making eye contact, looking somewhat troubled.
Demons are usually creatures with strong pride.
She seemed to be worrying about how to handle it if she offended the pride of the Dungeon Lord in front of her.
Of course, as she said, novice dungeons have almost nothing in the way of 'useful items' that can be sold and exchanged for resources. Things like souls, bodies, or equipment that suit the tastes of higher-ranking demons or devils.
But I wasn't like that.
"Who said such a thing?"
'Dungeon information.'
『Demon Lord Candidate 'Libertas' Dungeon Lv.2』
『Alias – None』
『Continent Fame – 1 (Unknown)』
『Demon Realm Fame – 12 ('Really' Fresh Newbie)』
When I activated the dungeon information internally, the information of my dungeon, which was still almost clean, appeared before my eyes.
The level usually increases by 1 after one or two waves, so there was no need to worry about it being low now.
Although the dungeon's magic power is also in the range affected by the level, that's not everything.
I lowered my gaze slightly.
『Core Activity – 76/136』
『Number of Rooms – 6/6』 『Required Magic Power – 52/60』
『Summons – 2/2』 『Required Magic Power – 2/2』
『Other Required Magic Power – 3/3』
My dungeon had also developed a bit in the meantime.
Right now, the dungeon structure when I lured my second skeleton, 'Mire,' who used to be Remia and her companions, was quite simple.
At the entrance, after securing a space where a small village could be set up, goblins were pressured with the Dungeon Lord's magic power to be brought in and made to live there, and after that, there was just a long, long corridor with no rooms.
What existed at the end was the room where the heart of the dungeon, the core, was located.
It was a dangerous thing to do, but at the time, it was unavoidable because all the magic power to configure the dungeon was poured into creating a long corridor to catch adventurers.
Even if I wanted to generate additional rooms, there was no magic power.
Now, however, several additional rooms have been created. But that wasn't possible just with the growth of the dungeon itself.
『Core Activity – Magic Power in Use 76 / Total Magic Power 136』
『Core Magic Power – 84 / Sacrifice Magic Power – 52』
Additional explanations appeared when I focused my will on the core activity. When I breathed will into 'Total Magic Power' again, the elements creating the current dungeon's magic power appeared.
Core magic power is the dungeon core's inherent magic power and the production amount due to the dungeon's own growth.
Here, inherent magic power means the Lord's magic power.
『Attribute – Magic Power 21』
In other words, it was a multiple of my magic power.
However, there is a limit to the trick of blindly increasing magic power to increase the dungeon's magic power. A limit imposed by my own 'Durability' and 'Resistance'.
…When I was a beginner, I thought this would work and wasted my first run stupidly.
Anyway, that's beside the point.
Then, where does the remaining sacrifice magic power, which makes up a considerable proportion of the current dungeon magic power, come from?
『Magic power of corpses absorbed by the dungeon 52』
『Adventurer sacrifice = 5』
『Wild goblin X 31 = 31』
『Wild beast X 16 = 16』
It's the share of the sacrifices devoured by the dungeon.
In the meantime, I diligently caught hostile life forms and converted their corpses into magic power to feed the dungeon.
Although it was Eve who put effort into that hunting and labor, not me…
Even if I tried to move directly, for some reason, Eve was emitting a strong will like 'Please leave this kind of work to me, Master!' so I couldn't step forward.
I don't understand why she dislikes sending me outside.
-Clatter!
"I didn't say anything."
-Clack.
Still, Eve was good at hunting.
One day, she caught a large wild boar, so we lit a fire with magic and roasted it to eat. The taste wasn't as good as regular pork, and it was tough, but thanks to the Dungeon Lord's body, it was edible.
Should I say it brought back memories after a long time.
Anyway.
Here were the things I intended to sell.
『Jack Miller = 2』
『Remia Olas = 3』
Namely, adventurer sacrifices. That is the remains of dead humans.